DevCon parting thoughts
- My keynote: this is the first time I every remember running short on time - I nearly always finish early.
- Glen Daniels didn't say anything I haven't heard before. ;-)
- Peter Drayton captured the subtle concepts of REST superbly
- Steve Lougran's presentation was just as good the second time. I particularly liked the things he could tell us now that he couldn't tell us the first time.
- Noah's presentation was very educational. I had thought that schema was more deterministic.
- Scott Seely's was perhaps my favorite session. To see a Microsoft employee demonstrate Axis alongside .Net did my heart good. I disagreed with some of it, but that's what makes topics like this interesting.
- This was the first time I've ever seen Don Box talk on a subject where he didn't have all the answers. The role of types in loosely coupled systems is a favorite topic of mine. I'll probably have more to say on this in a bit.
- Yasser is probably destined to become my new best friend. Had I known what he was going to say, I would have streamlined my keynote considerably.
- The Mindreef duo shared a wealth of immediately practical advice. If you ever consider deploying a web service based solution with components from more than one vendor, these are the guys to talk to.
My favorite part was the "Ask the speakers" Q&A in the middle. One thought for future conferences: schedule a few point/counter point sessions where opposing views are explored. Peter's presentation on REST to a SOAP crowd came close. For example, it would have been fun to see Yasser and Clemens discuss on whether XML should be a primary focus or an implementation detail.